I really enjoyed reading this book and going on the journey with the main character. This story is not very believable at all but that didn't stop me enjoying the life lessons that jump from these pages. It is told in a rather different way and makes you think about your own relationships with faily members.

*The Geography of Saying Goodbye* by Trevor J. Houser is an emotional, thought-provoking novel that blends humor, adventure, and heartfelt reflection. Following a son’s search for his runaway, terminally ill mother, the story explores grief, family, and the courage to truly live. Houser balances quirky, unpredictable moments with genuine emotional depth, creating a moving journey about love, loss, and second chances. It’s an unforgettable read that lingers long after the final page.

My only problem with the manuscript is the redacted/blocked out information. That made the book hard to read sometimes. Nevertheless, it was a good, deep read.

What a fantastic read!

The book is described as a son's search for a mother who disappears from her hospice facility of her own volition and heads across continent and ocean. She has taken his credit card and any expectations he had about her imminent end of life. Perhaps, if read as a page-turner it is, the book is simply a son's fascinating journey to locate his mother culminating in an expected end.

Or it isn't.

The book's hidden meaning revealed itself quickly to me. The son's journey doesn't appear to be a search for his mother rather a quest to understand her impact on his life. It is as much a hallucination he experiences, quite possibly from the hospice bed itself holding his dying mother's hand as it is a fantastic journey of planes, trains, automobiles, cruise ships and yachts.

He meets his ex-wife, a fantasy woman, children, sister, his mother's friends and acquaintances, maybe even past lovers. He begins to understand points of view forgotten or ignored. He realizes his mistakes in moments of clarity. And finds crevasses of his heart and mind he didn't know existed.

High school calculus class in India assigned a Russian book of problems from Mir Publications that had page after page of dense text outlining calculus questions. I think this book literally has more question marks than the calculus text from Russia. The son's journey, told through sentences, paragraphs, and chapters of questions is reflective for the reader. The author nudges this reflection without being professorial or instructive - he simply presents the questions. In plain speak. And stops the reader dead in their tracks.

It took me nearly four days to read and digest this book when its short length and uncomplicated text barely required four hours.

This is not a self-help book but might just open doorways and windows into the soul. An awesome read.

Thanks to the Unsolicited Press and NetGalley for this ARC of 'The Geography of Saying Goodbye' by Trevor Houser.

Paul Canton’s mother is, seemingly days from death, when she disappear with his credit card, bound of the western Mediterranean Sea.

What follows is a funny, tender account of a grown man learning who his mother really is, was, and is again, while trying to catch up with her en route from California to the Alboran Sea. At the same time, Paul is also grappling with who *he* is and who he really wants to be.

Warm, humorous with some laugh out loud quips, this is highly recommended.

Paul, a very cautious and very much a “No” man, is on a quest to find his mother, who just upped and left her deathbed for a quest to the Algoran Sea. He follows her to different places, not entirely sure why, especially since the more places she goes, the more he realizes he doesn’t actually know his own mother.

Then again, who does, right? It made me reflect on all the mothers I’ve met in my life, and the kind of mother I am. I don’t think my kid will ever actually know me. All mothers have lives that were so different from the lives they would lead after they gave birth.

I enjoyed the factoids in various chapters about death, but I especially loved when some chapters became letters to his mother. It felt intimate and real.

I chose this book on #netgalley because of the description (and the cover), and I’m happy to say that this book didn’t disappoint.

Paul Canton works at a car dealership and is still grappling with his divorce from the mother of his two children. His mother has a terminal illness and suddenly disappears on a whirlwind world trip to the Alboran Sea. The plot unfolds as Paul desperately follows her and navigates the scenarios, and uncanny cast of characters who know her, along the way. Not all of the book is pleasant - terminal illness is a tough subject matter - but the more unappealing parts are sprinkled with anecdotal memories of childhood interactions with his mom and his now-fragmented family. Houser has woven a complex story that is equal parts eulogy, post-divorce coming-of-age epiphany, and protagonist triumph, like various colored beads strung on the same necklace. If you like stories that are funny, engaging, chock-full of heavy themes, and a little bit discomfiting, this is the book for you.

The Geography of Saying Goodbye manages to make grief strange, funny, and deeply sad all at once. Paul’s dying mother announces that she is heading for the Alboran Sea, then disappears from the hospital with his credit card. His pursuit of her across continents becomes less about finding her than realizing how little he understood about the woman who raised him.

I liked the absurdity of the setup because grief itself can feel absurd. There is something painfully believable about wanting one more conversation with a parent and discovering, too late, how many questions you never thought to ask. Paul’s journey is funny in places, but underneath that humor is a quieter story about how easy it is to move through life without really living it.

My sincere thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free advance review copy.